Tag Archives: gravel road

Part 17 – Must Do’s in NZ

Now that all is sorted, we are ready to do the most of the time remaining before heading to Dunedin. As we arrived late last night, we took our time at Kinloch and explored the estuary of the Dart River. Before heading out, Nina and I felt it was time to acknowledge the bravery and generally good behaviour of our Tamariki and present them with their Taonga, their Ponamu necklaces.

After the first 10 km of hoping not to rip Timmy apart on the shoddy gravel road, we were back on tarmak and ready to cover some distance. Almost. Just one more stop at Lake Wakatipu for a splash and Lunch and off we were.

The KM ticked up and the landscape changed. But the most memorable time came late this afternoon. We finally picked up our first hitchhiker, Taiga. A guy from Japan hiking the lenght of New Zealand, he has been walking for over 100 days and almost at the end of his journey. We dropped him off at Te Anau to re-stock his supplies and went off further down the Milford Road to make camp for the night.

After a rougher start, the day at Milford turned out to be an absolute stunner, with brilliant sunshine and reasonably calm seas. We enjoyed the cruise and also the leasurly trip back on the Milford Road. We passed through the tunnel once more and found another splendit DOC campsite along the road. A bit crazy to realise that I still work more than half a day every weekday night throughout this adventure.

Part 16 – Queenstown, the affluent city

Today, at 9.30am, a workshop would check out Timmy’s problem. Finally! We got up early and drove to Queenstown. We stopped at one lookout on the top of the hills, motor running, to look down on Queenstown from above. But mostly, we just needed to park Timmy at the workshop and hope for the best.

Once parked, we walked into the inner city to sort out what we’re actually going to do now. Queenstown, Queenstown is the city where you need money. I mean, yes, things are expensive, but mostly you need money to do any of the cool things on offer here. Wanna go bungy jumping? Wanna go on a jet boat through the canyon? How about paragliding? Or a tiger submarine on the lake? Maybe take the steamer over the lake? Need a drink at the ice bar? A helicopter ride? All of these things sound like fun and they all are bloody expensive.

After all the stress of driving Timmy for the last couple of days, Flo got to decide while we had lunch. He decided that we would take the gondola up the mountain. YAY! And then, he and Number 3 would go down the mountain in a go cart. *shrugs* Okay then. It was all good and well until he decided to book 6 go cart laps for me as well. To say the least, I was not amused and also terrified. BUT…going down the laps 6 times…it started to be fun at some point. 🙂 I didn’t partake in of the racing the rest of my family engaged in. It was by far the most loved activity for Number 3. He LOVED it! He beat Flo in two of the races they had. And Flo drives a mean wheel, you know.

Afterwards, I got my sweet treat at Patagonia chocolates. That was my “must happen” in Queenstown. We took Flo’s coffee to the playground and hung out. Word about Timmy got to us: The alternator was broken, the new part could be shipped in for tomorrow. YAY! Timmy will be okay tomorrow!

This information made our very expensive campground stay tonight feel less bad. Also, the campground turned out to be AMAZING. It was by far our favourite campground. Super nice views, great facilities and a GAME ROOM with an ARCADE GAME for the kids. I think Number 3 will move to Queenstown if he ever has enough money for it.

On Thursday, Timmy had his operation at 11 am. It was scheduled to take 3 hours after which we would be free to go whereever we wanted to go again. This time, we took it slow. We spent as much time on the amazing campground as we could (latest check out was 10am), then dropped off Timmy. Today, we hung out at the lakefront of Lake Wakatipu and used the playground some more. We also used the time to go into the doc visitor’s center where the knowledgable lady suggested a walk along the route to Glenorchy for us and the kids. It sounded good so after getting a fully repaired Timmy back, we made our way to Glenorchy and stopped at Bob’s Cove for a walk. Picnic Point was a great lookout.

For tonight, Flo had booked a doc site at Kinloch, which is around the top of the lake from Glenorchy. The whole route down there is such a scenic drive, only the last 10km of gravel are in such a bad condition that I wasn’t sure we’d make it to the campsite. But we made it and it was a lovely place to spend the night.

Day 42 – Gravel and tarmac

It was the first really warm night we had. Too warm for a sleeping bag in fact. Getting up, however, we noticed that it is significantly cooler than yesterday. A southerly brought colder air and made the whole affair much more bearable.

Rocinante seen through a burnt out truck at the road side

We continued on the Oodnadetta track for another 6km before taking a turn onto the gravel road to Coober Pedy. With the wind being fresh and cool and not a blow dryer to the face, I enjoyed the 166km much more than yesterday.

Also, for quite a while, we followed the bed of a creek which meant trees and much more vegetation than yesterday. Flo even mentioned that he’s a bit disappointed with how green the desert is.

Part of the scenery was covered in stones. It’s a weird event that happened just naturally: Soil kept flying away until a layer of stones emerged which now stops any further erosion.

Huge fields of these red rocks cover sections of the desert

We still had a couple of fun stops at the road side to rehydrate and take pictures of burnt out trucks.

Around lunch time we arrive at tarmac. Flo felt the need to kiss the first strip of proper road after 450km of gravel. Coober Pedy is a real town but completely depended on opal mining. Coming into the town we took the obligatory “Cooper Pedy” picture. We also got the information that it was only 22 degrees in Coober Pedy which is really not hot.

Since it felt as if we had been out of civilization for a while, it was pizza for lunch. Flo, again, didn’t feel too happy to be in a town and around tourists again. We checked out a church which has been hewn into the earth which was quite cool. After that we pressed on.

Clearing from the opal mines

Coming into or leaving Coober Pedy shows you the mining aspect of the city. There are dig sites everywhere. It looks like big mole hills; one right next to the other. The picture doesn’t show it too well, unfortunately.

About 25km north of Coober Pedy is a lookout over a very cool valley. Breakways is a valley that has a lot of meaning to the local tribe. It has many different colours which makes it significant in the dreaming but European came in and named the place ‘salt and pepper’ because it looked most like spices to them. If you are a fan of Mad Max III or Pricilla Queen of the Desert, you might recognize the place.

Stuart Highway was a nice change of pace for the first while. Cruising along at 110kmh is different to the bumpy ride over corrugation we had for much of the day. But then, it is still about 2000km up to Darwin so I might get sick of it again. 😛

We had one more pause along the way before calling it a day at Cadney Homestead. Off to new adventures tomorrow.

: Huge fields of these red rocks cover sections of the desert

: A last little lake in the riverbed

: not much longer …

: Ah, it’s an old truck …

: Rocinante seen through a burnt out truck at the road side

: Our constant companies. I hate them.

: Road sign at the gravel road

: Mines South of Coober Pedy

: wohoo, black top.

: tourist shot, check.

: this is a church

: just under ground

: icons carved directly out of the walls

: the way to daylight

: Hopper sans grass

: Clearing from the opal mines

: Salt and pepper and Rocinante

: 12 seconds, don’t run too far …

: You could get quite close to the edge

: Flowers along Stuart Highway

Day 41 – Corrugation

I-i-i-i-iii ha-a-a-a-a-te co-o-o-or-r-r-r-r-ugati … oaaah, sand!

Look at those craters! Corrugation, about ankle-deep. Nina for scale is missing. 🙂

We did about 280km today, from Lyndhurst to Williams Creek. That leaves only ca. 170 km of gravel, minor excursions not included, of course. The road was tough to do on a motorcycle. About 30-40 km were either deep gravel, deep corrugation or nasty boulders half buried. The absolute priority for me was to get through undamaged. There were still one or two situations that got the adrenalin rushing.

There were stretches of hard packed soil were we could comfortably travel at 80km/h and within 15 m it would turn into something that would make walking speed an issue. At least with our bike. A dirt bike with a day pack and knobblies would probably fly right over. Twice it was touch and go. When we hit loose gravel and the bike just stated rolling out of control. I caught it both times. Riding with that level of concentration for hours is exhausting, though.

The one cloud of the day

And then there were the 1000s of hard hits and constant vibration. The check up in Darwin needs to be thorough, and I will do a minor check in Coober Pedy. For once, I admit that traveling in a tin would have its advantage. All the other tourists waddled out of their AC’ed Utes in jandals and shorts and did not seem to mind the road at all …

Nina’s comment: Today, I struggled. I struggled with the gravel which made for a more than bumpy ride. I struggled with the heat and the utter lack of shadow. I also struggled with my mood and Flo’s mood. 280km seem too long now. It is called a desert for a reason. This place is very inhospitable with the sun scorching down at 33 degrees in winter. I don’t think human beings are meant to be here.

Now it was not all pain and suffering. There were some cool things to see along the road and having made it so far is a bragable offence in its own right.

A locomotive of the old Gunn Line in Marree

First stop was Marree, an old cattle and railroad town. We met a bunch of other bikers who have done our route in reverse on GSs, and their tales about the road were encouraging. The local shop was particularly well stocked as well, so we sailed past the warning sign for the Oodnadatta track well prepared.

Along the way we stopped at “plane henge”, a peculiar sculpture park whose main attraction is a pair of planes bolted upright into the soil. The landscape kept changing constantly but subtly. Stony desert, plant cover, sand dunes and then soon enough the salt plane of dry southern Lake Eyre. White as far as the eye can see.

Lunch at the Oasis in Coward Spring

Probably the nicest stop along the way was Coward Springs, a campground at the heart of a wetland created by a leaking borehole. It had shade, lovely little campsites and a “spa”, filled with the water from said borehole. We were tempted to stay, but it was too early to call it a day and we kept it to a lunch break.

After probably the worst bit of road during the day, we made camp in Williams Creek. It has it all, quirky bar in the hotel, with travel memorabilia from all over the world. We had a Callipo Ice there and reminisced about our childhoods. We also met the first bunch of “serious” travellers like us. A German couple on a tandem push bike and swapped some route planning anecdotes.

Oh, one last thing … a small mishap … I’ll leave it to the photo to tell the story.